Game 91, Mariners at Yankees
Hisashi Iwakuma vs. Michael Pineda, 10:05am
Michael Pineda has topped the 100IP mark for the first time since his rookie season. His K:BB ratio is approaching 9. After posting a 2.71 FIP in limited duty last year, he’s pushed that down to 2.62 as a key part of the first-place Yankees’ rotation. In a pretty remarkable shift, his ground ball rate is now over 50%; it was under 40% with the M’s. It’s the kind of season that… OK, it’s the kind of season that makes every joke about the Trade, every #6 org quip, understandable. But hey, his BABIP-allowed is .345, and that’s pushed his runs-allowed well over his fielding-independent stats. No? No, doesn’t make me feel any better either.
1: Miller, SS
2: Seager, 3B
3: Cano, 2B
4: Cruz, RF
5: Smith, LF
6: Jackson, CF
7: Trumbo, DH
8: Morrison, 1B
9: Zunino, C
SP: Iwakuma
The M’s full-season affiliates are now a combined 63 games under .500. Bakersfield, the team with the worst record in the system, was somehow the only team to win – and they did so after surrendering a run in the 10th inning and blowing a 9th inning lead. Clinton was swept in a double-header. Jackson was shut out, and DJ Peterson’s OBP fell to .294. Everett is still above .500, but they lost 10-2 to Vancouver and are in a losing streak of their own. Tacoma crept over .500 before the AS break, but another slide has them 5 games under again. But hey, Jimmy Gilheeney’s up in Tacoma to make the start today against Sacramento and ex-MLB star Tommy Hanson. There are worse ways to spend a Saturday evening.
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The best move Jack Z. can make now is to resign. Not in September. Not at the end of the season. Now.
I have grades for the first half (versus expectations) off the top of my head:
“A” — Cruz, Seth Smith, Montgomery, Carson Smith, Lowe
“B” — Felix, Seager, Miller, Furbush
“C” — Morrison, Ruggiano, Jackson, Paxton, Walker, Elias
“D” — Wilhelmsen, Beimel
“F” — Cano, Weeks, Taylor, Trumbo, Rodney, Farquhar, Tyler Olsen, Leone, Iwakuma, Bloomquist, Sucre
I feel like I’m forgetting someone who probably got DFA’d.
Special first-half awards:
The Mike Hargrove Excellence in Managing Award: Lloyd McClendon.
The Bill Bavasi Excellence in General Managing Award: Jack Zduriencik.
The Justin Smoak Mariner Position Player Development Award: Mike Zunino (apologies: Dustin Ackley).
The Kyle Seager Mariner Position Player Development Award: Brad Miller.
The Jeff Cirillo The “F” I gave You Is Too Good For You Award: Robinson Cano.
The Willie “Grit” Bloomquist I’m Sorry I Had To Give You An “F”, But I Had To Award: Willie Bloomquist.
The Chris Young Where The Hell Did You Come From? Award: Mike Montgomery.
The Franklin Gutierrez We Love You But You Break Too Easily Award: Hisashi Iwakuma.
I forgot Ackley’s “F”.
You forgot Zu…Zu…Zu…”strike three-you’re out!”
jak — So many F’s, it’s easy to forget a few.
The M’s full-season affiliates are now a combined 63 games under .500.
That’s a pretty chilling sentence right there, if you figure good baseball players in the minors make for good baseball teams in the minors (and eventually good baseball players in the majors).
I have to think this has been a terrible year personally for Jack Zduriencik. It started with really high hopes, and now his job is probably toast. Kind of sad. For all of our disappointment, this has to be devastating for him.
That said, he may not be Bill Bavasi, but he will leave the next GM with a real mess. The minor leagues are not good, the major league roster is weak, and the team is saddled with a couple of potentially disastrous contracts, especially Cano’s. It’s going to take someone special to turn this ship around.
Cano, shamed by his first-half award, trying to make sure he doesn’t get another one in the second half.
Jack Z’s only skill seems to be drafting. Hopefully he’ll be looking for a new job soon, doing that for someone else.
That said, I’ll believe it when I see it. My lack of faith in this organization goes far beyond our inept GM.
I thought Zunino was having a good at bat, and then he swings at a shoulder high pitch for strike three.
Watching gamecast and this is the first time ive seen an “automatic strike” to Cano… Did I miss something here? when did that become a thing.
Jackson sure is a lousy base stealer.
This whole team is full of lousy base stealers Jake.
of effing course!
Are they lousy at stealing, or is the team lousy at picking its spots to attempt stealing? Either way, it seems like the manager is at least partially to blame.
If you’ve got guys that get caught almost every other time they attempt to steal a base, you tell them to stop trying!
Seriously – 35 stolen, 26 caught is pretty awful.
Argh – it’s worse than I thought!
Other than the White Sox (seriously… WTF are those guys doing?) the other teams who are in the same ballpark as the Mariners with regards to raw number of times caught stealing have (on average) double the number of successes our team has.
Cano misses Yankee stadium.
Yeah Westside, this is one of those times that the casual perception is completely in line with the data. the M’s baserunning has looked awful, and it’s up to the manager to pick the right spots even if that means no stealing at all.
By the way, did you see the video of Billy Hamilton stealing third on a throw back to the pitcher? Unbelievable.
I really like Smith working the count in nearly every AB he has.
This is getting nerve wracking.
Zunino’s defense now catching up to his offense.
Carson better not be learning the ways of the Rodney.
Carson was fine. Had Texeria struck out but didn’t get call. Jackson misread routine fly. Zunino should have blocked the wild pitch strike out but just made a terrible stab at it.
Dennisss, I haven’t seen that – but I’m going to go look right now.
Billy Hamilton is something else!
ADDENDUM: haha, here it is!
http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2015/07/11/136172090/billy-hamilton-steals-third-on-throw-back-to-pitcher
Carson was fine?! Some guys get the kid glove treatment, others get raked over the coals. How about Seeger missing that foul pop up? Plenty of games left for this season to turn out okay.